NEW YORK, Dec 17: President Bush on Saturday confirmed that he had personally authorized an eavesdropping program in the US more than 30 times since the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, lashing out at those involved in revealing the program.

“This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security,” he said in a radio address delivered from the White House.

“This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States,” Mr Bush said.

An exclusive report in The New York Times on Friday said Mr Bush secretly signed an order authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans who were communicating with individuals overseas to determine if they had terrorist ties.

“After 9/11, I told the American people I would do everything in my power to protect the country, within the law, and that’s exactly how I conduct my presidency,” Mr Bush said in an interview with PBS’ ‘The News Hour with Jim Lehrer’.